After six months of camping* with boy's mom while we finished our new house, we're finally homeowners again and things have started to get back to something like normal. My first clue:
our first official mowmow of the new house

Perhaps you'll recall that this is the ritual of one of our kitties where she wanders around the house with the yellow mousie in her mouth howling. It's crazy.
She never gave us a single mowmow at our temporary home. I guess she knew it just wasn't right, or maybe she decided to mind her manners with grandma. Either way, we were starting to think that mowmow was forgotten. But then, last night...mowmow!!
It was a little frighening, actually. It shocked us both awake in the middle of the night, plus the concert hall-like acoustics of our still 95% unfurnished house made it really, really loud.
Still, we can't help but feel that it's a sign that all is well in new home land.

*Ok, so it wasn't really camping. We swapped the tent and air matress for a matress on the floor in an attic. Besides, at a campground someone (besides me, that is) actually cleans the bathrooms once in a while.

In other news:
Unpacking my cooking equipment from storage was like the best Christmas ever. Better really, since everything that came out was EXACTLY what I would have wanted :) So, cooking has resumed with a vengance but I've been a little lax in documenting due to the fact that I REALLY, REALLY need a new camera. So much for the idea that I would begin a chronological photo record of new kitchen meals starting from the first...

I had been craving a really good bowl of French onion soup and I figured that was the perfect reason to try making some at home, something I hadn't done before.
The onions:

the onions following about 50 minutes of slow carmelizing:

the delicious bowl of onion soup, complete with freshly toasted croutons and melted gruyere:

Yes, it was yummy, but I cheated a bit and didn't make my own beef stock so I know it could be better. Next time I'll do it properly, I promise.